WO 2005/084339 discloses an apparatus for controlling a lighting system in response to an audio input. A mapping facility can be provided with a lighting program (e.g. stored in a mapping table) that can include one or more variables to receive input values at execution time. The mapping facility can receive the output of an audio decoder, so that information concerning the characteristics of the input audio signal can be provided to the mapping facility to provide the input values for variables in the lighting program executed by the mapping facility. In an embodiment, the particular mapping function employed can be selected based upon information provided with the audio signal that provides an indication of the type of music included therein. Specifically, some pieces of music can include a tag or other information in the music, or associated therewith, that identifies the type of music. Such information can be used to select a mapping function that fits the style of music. The lighting programs can be authored on a different system and then transferred, via a computer-readable medium, to the mapping table in the apparatus.
A problem with such a system is that it is not very suited to re-creating the atmosphere at any performance venue. This would require that the same type of lighting system was in use at the performance venue, and that the user could obtain the lighting program used during the performance.